May 2013
Taiwanese Media’s “Going along with Beijing” Is Becoming More Evident
Ken-ichi Yamada
In recent years the media in Taiwan and Hong Kong seem to carry more reports that give praise to mainland China while they cover no stories that go against the Chinese government or make them less noticeable. Some say that behind the trend lies “China factors.” Most notably, the closer China-Taiwan and China-Hong Kong economic ties become, the more prominent this tendency becomes. In Taiwan and Hong Kong it is common to see a person who runs a real estate or other businesses own a media company. Enraging China may cause a negative impact on these businesses, and it is pointed out locally that from fear of this media owners instruct their editorial departments to give sufficient consideration to China. In the first part of this article, the author reports the reality of Taiwanese media, which is said to be reporting more stories that honor China, focusing on the recent entry into the media business by Want Want Holdings, a food manufacturer that makes enormous profits from the mainland, as well as Sanlih E-Television’s controversial replacement of anchor person of its news-commentary program Dahua Xinwen (lit. “big story news”) whose critical comments about China had been popular among the viewers. These two cases suggest a situation where Taiwanese major media’s reports on China are being molded into certain patterns. Meanwhile, there also has emerged a movement against the prevailing “pro-China” media approach, with the general public trying to protest it through the market, represented by a declined circulation figure, down from 500,000 to 400,000, of Apple Daily after Want Want Holdings’ takeover move was revealed. Besides, some expect that the spreading Internet will tame the major media’s “pro-China” momentum. Nevertheless, Taiwanese conventional media such as newspapers and broadcasting are still positioned as the overwhelming mainstream media, and therefore many are pessimistic about old media’s objectivity and criticism in their China reports amid the prospect of much closer economic relations between Taiwan and China.